


Daughter of the Forge

by DragonGoesMoo



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Changing POV, Gen, Kind of CACW compliant, Like Civil War happened but it ended way differently, POV Original Character, POV Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 10:25:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11826789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonGoesMoo/pseuds/DragonGoesMoo
Summary: Althaia goes to get a job working in the labs at the Avengers compound where she must take extra care to hide her secret heritage.





	Daughter of the Forge

**Author's Note:**

> the exposing of her heritage doesn't really happen in this one but maybe I will write a sequel where the Avengers find out.
> 
> ~~._.~~ = POV Change
> 
> Hope you enjoy and please leave a comment if you do :)

“Wow” Althaia sighed, staring wide eyed, as she was herded with the other potential recruits through large glass doors into the lobby of the Avengers facility in upstate New York. It had been six months since the Civil War that turned out to be just an elaborate ruse designed to flush out the last agents of HYDRA, like Secretary of State Ross, and the Avengers were hiring again. The lobby itself looked just like any other high-end business lobby Althaia had seen, large desk facing the doors, comfortable chairs situated around the edges of the room, it was also mostly white with the colorful artwork hanging from the walls that weren’t windows, rugs and cushions being the only thing stopping it from feeling clinical.

“Oh, I sense an AI.” Atticus muttered into Althaia’s ear as they waited for someone to direct the group. Atticus was her oldest friend and wasn’t human. He himself was an AI (turned android) built by Althaia when she was 8 years old (she had a lot of help from her father). His body, a tall gangly thing with short dusty blond hair, fair skin, a rather large nose and storm grey eyes, was built entirely by her father as a present on Atticus’ first birthday. Knowing that there was no way to talk him out of communicating with this unknown AI, Althaia just rolled her eyes

“Just be nice and no talk of who made you and the whole _other thing_ ” Althaia wouldn’t worry about being outed as Atticus’ creator if it didn’t come with a lot of very unwanted questions, you see Althaia isn’t exactly normal, she is in fact a demi-god. Or more specifically the daughter of Hephaestus, Greek god of the forge and craftsmen of the gods. She remembers when she told him about the job she was going for and how after complaining that he should be the one to meet Tony Stark, had looked her in the eyes and made her promise to steer clear of Thor. Apparently, gods can sense each other and their children. Althaia was pulled from her thoughts when an intimidating woman with black hair tied into a harsh bun strode over to the group.

“Hello. Welcome to the Avenger’s Facility. Today you will get a tour of the grounds and will be interviewed. Those of you who earn a place here will know by the end of the day.” Nodding mostly to herself, the woman turned and strode from the room. Having plenty of experience with people who expected to be followed (cough, Apollo, cough), Althaia grabbed Atticus’ hand and marched through the group of confused recruits to followed after the woman.

~~._.~~

“So how many do you think will make it this year?” Clint questioned as he flopped onto the large couch beside Tony. All the Avengers were in their common room partaking in the annual ‘watch the newbies fail’ fest. The newbies had just entered the lobby and were staring around in either awe or fear. This year there were a few new people to the screening, there was Barnes who was sitting with Cap on the love seat like he always did, Lang who had his daughter on his lap on the floor and T’challa who was sitting in an arm chair.

“I don’t understand how watching support staff be hired is supposed to be entertaining.” The king protested. Tony rolled his eyes and before he could even open his mouth to argue that it was always entertaining watching someone else fail, especially if that someone was a self-righteous know it all, FRIDAY interrupted sounding confused

_“Boss there’s another AI in the building. He says he just wants to talk. What should I do?”_ Another AI, but that was impossible. The last AI Tony had known about was Ultron. Sure, other companies and scientists had tried making some but since Sokovia no one has finished one. At least not to Tony’s knowledge. Looking around he was relieved to find that his fears seemed to apply to the others if their pale faces and sudden tenseness were anything to go by. It was so tempting to tell FRIDAY to go on the offensive and attack the unknown AI but he knew they need to find out how this other AI had gotten in and who had created it. getting a nod from Steve, Tony gave FRIDAY her orders

“Well if talking is all he wants to do then by all means baby girl talk to him just make sure we can hear it and it would be good to find out how he got in and who created him. You know just the usual getting to know you questions.”

_“If you say so Boss. Hello, you wanted to talk.”_

“What, yes. I…I did. Wow, sorry it’s just that not many AI respond. Not that many can. Last one I had a good chat with was a fella named JARVIS shame about ‘im though. Anyway I’m Atticus.” A somewhat high-pitched voice rang though the room. The voice was British, though it lacked the refined edge that JARVIS had. At his old AI’s name, Tony paled. He hadn’t known JARVIS spoke to other AI’s, granted he didn’t know others existed but that wasn’t the point.

_“How did you get in here and who made you?”_ FRIDAY sounded hostile and Tony beamed, proud that his baby girl was learning how to put tones into her voice.

“Oh, uhh through the front door. You know I came here just to talk and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now and I can’t tell you who made me, coz that’s just rude to ask. You haven’t even given me you name.” Tony raised his eyebrows at the response. It honestly sounded so real, like it was an actual person they were talking to. He was seriously impressed and a little frightened. If this AI wanted to, he could probably destroy FRIDAY. Tony looked to his friends as the conversation continued, newbies fest thoroughly forgotten about, when he got to Vision the android looked like he was thinking hard about something then he spoke and Tony suddenly knew what the android had been planning

“Hello Atticus.” Vision said calmly causing the others to stare at him

“J is that you. I…I thought you were dea…” The AI, Atticus, whispered before cutting himself off “You’re not JARVIS.” He continued “That is a low blow miss new AI. Using someone’s dead friend against them like that.” Atticus sounded pissed by the end of the sentence and Tony worried that he might try to hurt his baby girl

“That was my fault.” Tony blurted before he had really registered what he was doing. “I’m Tony Stark and the AI you are talking to is FRIDAY. I told her to get whatever information from you however she could. Seeing as JARVIS, my last AI, was killed by one of you.” Tony voice cracked on the word killed and he was glad that no one mentioned it.

“Oh, you must be Sir then.” Atticus muttered softly “hehe, JARVIS used to complain about you a lot. It was always fond though. He loved you, you know. Was a great guy to talk to too. Sarcastic little shit and always there when you needed ‘im.” Atticus sounded like he was on the edge of crying and Tony wasn’t fairing much better. He still blamed himself for JARVIS’s death. Even though JARVIS was a part of Vision it was more like having his son around than actually having him around.

“Look you and FRIDAY can talk if you want and that voice that sound like J? that was Vision. He’s an android and might like to join in.” discreetly wiping his eyes Tony felt Clint wrap an arm around his shoulders and squeeze. He motioned for FRIDAY to continue her conversation with Atticus quietly and turned back to the TV screen when the newbies were being lead into the gym where Natasha was waiting for them. Well at least watching some recruits get the snot beat out of them might distract him for a bit.

~~._.~~

Althaia watched Atticus as they followed their guide to wherever she was taking them first. The rest of the recruits had finally caught up to them and were crowding around the duo. Althaia knew something was up with her friend as she watched his expressions go from overjoyed to angry to almost crying in the space of a few minutes. The expressions weren’t noticeable unless you knew what small ticks to look for and they made Althaia concerned. She didn’t get a chance to voice those concerns though until they were in the training rooms. Though she was an engineer at heart, it was always nice to know where she could come to blow off steam. She was the daughter of the god of volcanoes after all, and she had the temper to match. While the other recruits sqee’d and fell over themselves to be introduced to the Black Widow, who looked highly amused and annoyed all at the same time, Althaia scooched closer to Atticus on the bench they were sitting at.

“What happened. You looked really upset before. Is the AI an ass cause I will hack in and upload windows Vista to their servers if I have to. You know I will.” This got the desired effect of making Atticus laugh.

“No, it’s fine. It was just a misunderstanding. It’s all cleared up now. Her name’s FRIDAY and she’s J’s little sister. Just as snarky as her brother.” Felix chuckled as he watched the Widow flip a recruit. It was almost an hour later when Hill, Althaia had asked Atticus to ask FRIDAY who it was, herded them all through the doors of the training room and into the medical wing where Dr Helen Cho spoke to them about her machine the cradle which, according to Atticus, helped create Vision. After that they were taken to the one place Althaia had been waiting to see, the labs. They were amazing. Nothing like hers or her father’s back at home but still massively impressive. They were greeted by Dr Bruce Banner who, while definitely not Tony Stark level of cool, was amazing to listen to and a genuinely nice guy. Althaia may have monopolized his time a bit but the others didn’t seem too interested in getting to close to the human side of the Hulk. They stopped at the cafeteria after that and were told to wander around until they were called to be interviewed. After eating a sandwich and talking with Atticus, FRIDAY and Vision, who had both promised to keep her identity as Atticus’ creator a secret until she could tell the Avengers herself, Althaia wandered back over to the labs and started to tinker, Atticus took a small AI/android only tour of the facility while he waited. Althaia was so wrapped up in the idea she had been nutting out (surveillance drones that looked like and were the size of fireflies and could taze people) that she nearly punched whoever had grabbed her in the face. While she didn’t do that she did let out a high pitched squeal and jumped about a foot in the air. Spinning around she came face to face with a scruffy blond with huge biceps. Looking at them she was reminded of Apollo and his well defined arms. This must be the archer Hawkeye. No way would anyone have biceps that big unless they used a bow regularly.

“Sorry about startling you. It’s your turn to be interviewed. If you would like to come this way please.” He smiled totally unrepentant as he led Althaia out of the labs and through most of the facility before herding her into what looked like a large office. There was the usual desk and chairs surrounding it but there was also a tall bookshelf that was overflowing with books and a very comfortable arm chair beside it. There was also three people in the room all huddled around a tablet on the other side of the desk to Althaia, they were muttering about some scientific thing they were working on. These people were Dr’s Banner and Cho and Tony Fucking Stark. Squashing down the need to squeal like a teenage girl at a Justin Beiber concert, Althaia quietly grabbed one of the books (The Hobbit) from the shelf and got comfortable in the plush arm chair. She had about 20 pages left when a very loud “SHIT” pulled her from the world of Middle Earth. Looking up Althaia was met with three sheepish scientists.

“Uh…how long have you been sitting there?” Dr Stark asked, rubbing the back of his neck. Althaia swallowed a chuckle as she rose from her seat and walked over to take the one opposite these three amazing people. She checked her phone and answered

“About 2 hours. It’s fine though, seemed whatever you were doing was either important, interesting or both.”

“Still we are sorry that you waited so long. So shall we get this over with then?” Dr Banner looked to his companions who both pulled up digital lists of questions they wanted to ask, well Dr Stark’s was in holographic form but whatever.

“So you are Althaia Ortiz. You grew up in New York and live with your father and step-mother, correct?” Dr Cho raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Althaia.

“Yes that’s right. I also didn’t finish school as it bored me and I learned far more from my parents.” She noticed the sideways glances that that response garnered and wondered if not having a formal education was going to stop her from getting the job, like it had so many other times.

“From what Bruce and Helen tell me you’re not stupid so why here? Why do you want to work for us?” Althaia shot an incredulous look at the man before she sighed

“Well, Dr Stark” she watched closely as his eyebrows furrowed at the address “apart from not being able to get a job anywhere else. I want to help people. I’m good with tech and creating things with it is my passion. So if I can help people by creating things, be it personal shields, weapons, whatever, I will.” There was a long pause then and just as Althaia was beginning to get restless Dr Stark spoke

“Tony.” Althaia stared at the man confused before very eloquently replying

“What?”

“Tony, my name. I mean if I’m going to be stealing you to be my personal lab assistant then you should probably call me by my name.” Oh… _oh_ , no way. Althaia internally danced and screamed until she remembered about

“Atticus will have to come too. No way will I leave him.” She felt quite smug when Tony’s eyes bulged, Althaia was actually worried that they were going to fall out of his head, and he gasped

“You. You were the one who made him.” Tony leaned over the desk to stare

“Yeah. Not his body though that was a present from dad.” She smiled as Tony’s mouth fell open

“Wha…He’s an android? Bu…well now you definitely have a job and are staying tonight to tell me all about how and when you made an AI.” Tony shook his head and rose from his seat, Everyone else following close behind. He was about to leave when an Irish accented voice floated through the room

_“I wouldn’t worry about Atticus Miss Ortiz, Vision has hired him as his tutor on everyday life and etiquette”_  

“Of course he has.” Tony muttered while both Dr Banner and Dr Cho chuckled before heading out the door. Following close behind, Althaia smiled and had a feeling that things were only going to get far more interesting from here.


End file.
